


It's A Perfect World

by zjofierose



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Injury, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-29
Updated: 2013-08-29
Packaged: 2017-12-25 00:06:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/946309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zjofierose/pseuds/zjofierose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a perfect world- Derek can't even imagine what it would be like if it were any different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's A Perfect World

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to @the_deep_magic for the very fast beta!

It's a perfect world.

He's less than two years old when he meets Stiles for the first time, and, the way his mom tells it, he doesn't even try to say a word. Just marches over on his short legs to the diapered kid in the corner of the pre-school and plonks down beside him. Stiles pauses his stream of self-directed nonsense syllables exactly long enough to realize he has an audience, then beams  and picks up right where he had left off, now directing the majority of his babbling at Derek where he sits silently shoved up against Stiles' side.

They're inseparable from that moment on- Derek throws howling tantrums for a week when forced to leave at the end of the day, and Stiles just reaches out chubby fingers to him, fat tears rolling from his big brown eyes. Derek's mother laughs when she talks about it, covering her eyes in remembered embarrassment. "Thank God you were too young to shift, I would never have explained that to the teacher. Or the Sheriff and his wife." She laughs. "The howling was ridiculous enough. I just told them your sisters had been watching too many nature documentaries." She snorts into her hand, and shakes her head. " _Nature documentaries_ , Derek."

\--

_"Derek, Derek, listen to me, don't go under. Fucking don't, I swear to God I'm gonna... Scott, Scott get Deaton! Something's fucked Derek over, and I don't know what to do. Derek. Derek! Stay with me, buddy. Stay with me..."_

\--

It's a perfect world, and so when Scott shows up in second grade, he's not a wolf, and his dad doesn't take up with another woman and leave town. Derek doesn't like him at first; well, not _Scott_ , precisely, so much as that Derek doesn't like anyone who might take any of Stiles' attention away from him, but when Derek growls low in his almost-8-year-old throat at Scott approaching with his happy puppy face and his stupid cupcake, Stiles just reaches over and takes Derek's hand.

So now they are three, and if Scott and Derek probably wouldn't be friends without the glue that is Stiles, it doesn't matter too much. They orbit him like twin moons, passing courteously in the night, but with no connecting gravity. For all that Scott is loyal to a fault, he's also easily distracted, and Derek can't help but be glad that sometimes Scott is off playing a game or seeing a movie or talking to a girl and Stiles is only his again.

\--

_...beep....beep...beep...beep..._

_"They got you all patched up, buddy. Now all you've got to do is engage that freaky werewolf healing thing you've got going for you! Just... start it up! Get 'er going! Any time now! Any... fucking... fuck, Derek... why are you... why aren't you healing? Why are you just lying there? C'mon, get up. Shove me at a wall, they've got lots of them here, all this same fucking blinding white, don't you just wanna shut me up? Knock me around a little? ... at all? ...Derek? ... Derek? ...please?"_

\--

It's still a perfect world when Lydia waltzes in to the fifth grade. She and Stiles are at the top of the class in a friendly rivalry, and because Stiles still holds Derek's hand under the lunch table, it never even occurs to any of them that Stiles would be anything other than her best buddy. They enter junior high, and Stiles does his class projects with her. Scott tells her she's pretty, and listens to her talk. And Derek, well, he makes it very clear that the next boy he catches trying to corner her behind the school without her explicit invitation will be limping for a lot longer than the last one. Laura nearly hurts herself laughing at that _("Oh, god, baby brother, you can't be both the white knight *and* the fairy tale monster, it doesn't work like that!"),_ but he doesn't care. She belongs to Stiles just like Derek does, and no one hurts people that belong to Stiles. Not while Derek's around.

They still sleep at each other's houses every weekend just like always, curled around each other in the nest of blankets on one of their beds. Sometimes when they wake up one or both of them will smell like _more_ , like salt and heat, but they don't care. Even the morning Derek comes to in the process of biting onto Stiles' shoulder as he shudders himself awake Stiles just curls Derek's fingers in his own and rolls over on the pillow, smelling of laziness and contentment.

\--

_"Derek. It's been... over a month, man. Why are you still here? Christ, it's like with fucking Peter all over again, minus the super creepy burns, obviously, but that's the thing, isn't it? You're fine, you're completely healed, so why the fuck are you still here?_

_Is it... do you not want to come back? Are we all finally too much for you? Too many kids, too many responsibilities, too many fuck ups? A burned down house and a shitty loft? I guess I couldn't blame you for that, really. Not much to come back to in the end, is it? Just a bunch of people who won't stop living and nearly dying and_ needing _you._

 _...they need you, Derek. The pack's just lost without you. They need you back. Come back for them, I know you can do it. You're always the one who pulls through in the end, you're always the one who gets the fuck back up and keeps going. What are you still doing in this bed? Get up, Derek._ Get up _. They need you!_

_...get up, Derek. Please?_

_...I need you."_

\--

It's a perfect world in which Alison moves to town in the eighth grade, still growing into her looks but deadly with a crossbow. Scott's head-over-heels for her, and Lydia thinks she's best friend material, and so they grow from four to five. Derek's not fussed- Alison's nice enough, and she steals lots of Scott's attention. Stiles is happy for both of them because he's a genuinely good person, and when they all go to the eighth grade winter formal, he dances with Lydia, but pushes Derek up against the coatroom wall and kisses him with enthusiasm, but no finesse, tasting of Skittles and Pepsi in the dim light. Derek kisses back, breathing in the reassuring scent of _green_ and _warm_ and _his_ , and then it's over and Stiles is smiling, and they go back to the disco-lit gym to join their friends.

At some point he hears from Scott about Alison's crazy aunt, who got locked up in an asylum for scary things like rape and pyromania. Apparently it runs in the family, because her grandfather's in a facility somewhere too, but Alison never knew either of them, so even though it's kind of weird, it's not really a big deal. It feels somehow like it should be significant, but he's not sure why, so he spends a few minutes trying to imagine what it would be like not to know members of his family, to have them somewhere he couldn't see or talk to or smell them. It's disturbing, so he lets it go. No sense borrowing trouble, he thinks, and doesn't wonder about Alison's family any more.

He's not sure when his mother figures it out, though really, maybe she had always known. She starts leaving books out like _Mating Young_ , and _For Better and For Worse: Bondmates in Werewolf Society_. He reads them, then leaves them lying around his room so that Stiles will pick them up. Every so often he'll catch a spike of heated scent from across the room while Stiles is reading, and have to fidget and adjust his jeans. The books are informative on the details, but they don't actually tell him anything he didn't already somehow know. Stiles must feel the same way, because he never mentions any of it, just takes the reading in stride with a level heartbeat and a lot of snacking.

\--

_"Ok, Derek. So, maybe, when you wake up, you might hate me for this, but I don't know what else to do. You've got no one left; Peter's dead, thank every god there is, and the rest of your pack... they're not equipped to deal with this. Scott and Alison got into Davis, and they start next week, and Scott somehow managed to get a scholarship, so he can't defer, and Alison's dad sure the hell isn't going to let her put off schooling because you won't just wake up._

_Anyway, the thing is, the thing is this, the hospital can't keep you anymore, not really, and I know you're like, rich, and someone set up your bank account to cover this insane hospital bill, but they need to move you out, because, you know, you're recovered, right? You're recovered, except for the whole waking up thing, otherwise you're fine. So, they were going to ship you off to the, what do you call it, not a retirement home, not really, but the convalescence place, you know, the one where Peter was, and I just couldn't... fuck._

_I couldn't let them do that to you, Derek. If anything's going to keep you hiding in there forever, it sure would be getting stuck into the same four walls where Peter did all his insane plotting. So, you're coming home with me. Yep! That's it! Aren't you glad? Stilinski residence, ho! You'll be like, an honorary Stilinski. C'mon, Derek, tell me you've never wanted me as a little brother!_

_...yeah, Dad did agree. It took a while, but he feels bad for you, you know? I'm gonna go part time to the community college, and probably do some free-lance internet stuff so that I can take care of you. I know how to, you know. I used to watch the home nurses do IVs and stuff, so you'll be in good hands! So! Whaddya say? Movie marathon, my place, say.... five o'clock? Yeah? You'll be there? Great!_

_I knew I could count on you."_

\--

Because it's a perfect world, no one thinks to object to the fact that Derek and Stiles are now sixteen and still sleeping in each other's beds at least two nights a week. Derek thinks his parents must've pulled the Stilinskis aside years ago and given them more of a talking to than Derek had realized. The Sheriff's always known about the wolf thing, but given how he's never once been bothered by the continuing closeness of the boys, Derek figures he must know more than he lets on.

Lydia's got Jackson and Danny now, and Scott and Alison are as strong as ever, which leaves more and more of Stiles' time just for Derek, even if they are all still friends. They go through the motions of applying to colleges and getting good grades, and at night, Derek climbs through Stiles' window and they wrap naked arms around each other, coming together without words, speaking the language of touch they've always shared. Stiles is steady like a rock, and Derek loves him more than any production of voice and air and tongue could say, and Stiles doesn't need the words anyway, he _knows_ , he knows Derek, he always has.

They're seventeen when it feels _right_ , and _good_ , and _now_ , and so Derek rolls Stiles onto his back and presses his teeth to that spot where Stiles' neck meets his shoulder and pauses, and Stiles arches underneath him and says "Yes," gasps and says " _yes_ ," again and again as Derek sinks his teeth into the skin, no fangs, no turning bite, he would never, but his human teeth, breaking through Stiles' flesh to leave a mark for all to see. He tastes blood and he groans, coming all over both of them, only realizing that Stiles beat him to making a mess when he lowers himself to drape across Stiles' limp and overheated body. Stiles threads their fingers together and presses kisses into Derek's hairline until they fall asleep, and in the morning both their scents have subtly changed and Derek thinks he might just die of being this happy.

\--

_"Damn, it's a good thing you're nearly as skinny as me now, dude. I gotta tell you, there are not many people I would want to shift around like this. But, I suppose fair's fair and all; you dragged my sorry ass around enough, it's just my turn to lug yours, yeah?_

_God, Derek,_ you're nearly as skinny as I am _. Do you have any idea how wrong that is? Where are the fangs of doom? Where are your claws of certain murder? Man, your leather jacket isn't even gonna fit you anymore. How're you gonna lurk in corners like a convincing shadow of the night? No one's gonna buy it._

_Derek... fuck. I've done enough fucking crying over you, I swear to God I'm done with it. Do you hear me?_

_Just... wake up, Derek. I think you can. I've seen you, you've started moving your fingers. I don't think you know, but you have. And I think you moved your own arm last week while I was in the kitchen. I know you can do it, I know you can, Derek. I believe in you. C'mon, please, just get it together. Sit up and gimme a good snarl, for old times' sake._

_...for me?"_

\--

It's still a perfect world, but sometimes Derek feels like he's missing snippets of it. Like somehow the narrative arc isn't as clear as it used to be. He turns around one day and Alison and Scott got married, and he's there in all the photos, but he doesn't remember it. And then he and Stiles are in their own place, and turning twenty-one, and getting plastered on a bottle of semi-decent champagne before making slow and thorough love to each other in every room of the little rental one-bedroom house.

Sometimes at night he thinks he hears voices, but they don't make any sense, and he woke Stiles up that once to ask him about it, but Stiles just looked at him sleepy and confused, so it must be a fluke or all in his head. He doesn't know what to think of it, so he just ignores it, waits for it to go away. Except it doesn't, the voices get louder and more frequent, and he keeps losing days, and sometimes months, and he's worried, so worried, but he doesn't want to say a word, so he doesn't. He doesn't.

Then one day he sees the ring on Stiles' finger, but he can't remember, he can't remember putting it there, and it sends him into an absolute panic there in their kitchen. He's shouting, but he can't hear the words coming out of his mouth, and there's a terrible rushing in his ears, his vision whiting out, and he can see Stiles' horrified face staring and Stiles' hands reaching for him, and he reaches back, shouts back _no, not losing you_ , _no_ , and _mine, mine_.

\--

And then Stiles is still staring at him, hands on his, but Stiles is eighteen again, and his face is so sad, even though his eyes are wide like he's seeing something incredible, and Derek just hurts to see him like that, so he grips Stiles' hands in his own, and coughs out the last word stuck in his throat.

_"..mine."_

 


End file.
